Alongside the achievements in helicopter design of the famous Mil plant, the Kamov factory was to become the other twin pillar of the industry in Russia, developing from a specialist in reconnaissance to a leading producer of attack helicopters.

While the helicopter design bureau
of Nikolai Kamov was in some aspects eclipsed by the work of the Mil plant under engineer Mikhail Mil, the brain behind classics like the Mi-8,
Kamov was the other driving force in the sector’s massive growth from the 1940s.

A native of Siberia’s Irkutsk Region and the son of a teacher,
Kamov was regarded as a down-to-earth man of the people. But nothing foretold
his rise as one of the largest helicopter manufacturer engineers in history.

In the 1920s, the construction of propeller-driven aircraft
in the Soviet Union was the work of individuals and was done in crude
conditions. It was these unlikely workshops that gave rise to the future Kamov
factory.

In 1929, the 27-year-old engineer built the first Soviet
autogyro reduced helicopter. Its immediate practical use was negligible, but
this potential game-changer in aviation technology soon attracted attention.
Kamov gyros were used in agriculture, particularly in mountainous areas where
conventional aircraft were ineffective.

In 1938, the design took part in a prominent expedition to
rescue Soviet polar explorers drifting on an ice floe, and in World War II they
were used for reconnaissance and the transportation of people and goods, having
the critical advantage of being able to take off and land without a runway.

Driven by ingenuity

The seeds of the renowned helicopter plant’s meteoric growth were
first sown in 1940, when a separate design bureau was set up under Kamov, who
by now had understood that his aircraft had a future. It was the engineer who
named the design vertolet in Russian, which roughly translates as “twist
flyer.”

After the war, funding opportunities arose for a new branch in
the USSR military industry. Together with the Mil plant, the Kamov design
bureau became its main engine, and from the outset Kamov helicopters had one
feature that set them apart from the rest – coaxial rotating propellers.

Soviet aircraft designer Nikolay Kamov, 1972. Source: RIA Novosti

The idea was simple and ingenious: Two screws or props are
placed on one drive shaft but rotate in opposite directions. The technique balances
the motion created by each screw and affords the pilot better maneuverability
and handling. In 1948, the Kamov design bureau emerged as a full design and
production unit, headquartered in Lyubertsy by Moscow.

The bureau first specialized in the production of helicopters
for the navy. Its first Kamov prototype, the Ka-8, proposed
in 1944, was intended for navy communication and reconnaissance. But the
technical innovations of this first aircraft proved so successful that they
provided the basis of a whole range of new helicopters – the Ka-10, Ka-15 and
Ka-18. However, the real breakthrough was the famous Ka-25, the first Soviet
helicopter specifically assigned for combat use, with its specialty the complex
operational tasks of the detection and neutralization of enemy submarines.

In the absence of location markers on the surface the Ka-25 was
the first aircraft to have all-round visibility. The Ka-25 led to the Ka-27, which
spawned an entire new family of helicopters, the Ka-27PS rescue aircraft and
the export Ka-28 combat helicopter, as well as the Ka-29 troop-carrier. The Ka-31
radar variation was a unique development, with radar technology powerful enough
to detect enemy ships, planes and missiles at up to 200 miles.

From sharks to alligators

In the 1980s, the Kamov factory went way beyond its original
scope. The design bureau was put to developing assault helicopters, the most famous
of which, the Ka-50 or "Black Shark,” could carry various cannons and
machine-guns, guided and unguided missiles, and a regular bomb payload.

However, the design had one major drawback: The cabin only
held one pilot who could not adequately fly the helicopter and detect and
strike targets simultaneously. One idea was for the Ka-52 to be used in pairs, sharing
the range of operational tasks, but its impracticality of the idea soon became
apparent.

Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter. Source: Snake Eyes

The series then saw the launch of its twin-seat Ka-50
modification, the Ka-52 Alligator. Today, this is the mainstay of production at
the Kamov plant and the aircraft is already looking to the
future: Before 2020, the Russian air force plans to field 145 Alligators,
cementing the plant’s growth toward the next generation of helicopter
technology.